After pissing off a chunk of the Internet when he rolled out a look he called “Last N****s in Paris” during the A.P.C. Fall 2015 men’s presentation, Jean Touitou has finally come out to address the issue. The designer collaborated with Timberland for that particular collection, giving his look the dubious name because he thinks Timberlands are a “strong ghetto signifier.” After catching wind of Touitou’s unfortunate nomenclature, Timberland cut ties with A.P.C.

Touitou says he’s sorry about the whole thing. In an interview with The Guardian published today, the designer expresses his regret for using the word — but not before trying to sort of justify saying it at all, harkening back to his experience at a Kanye West concert: “If all the people had been singing this song, including white people, will they get into trouble for using that word?” We don’t know, Touitou. If all the people jumped off a bridge, including the white people, would they get in trouble? What does this have to do with anything?

But after the qualifiers, we do get a genuine apology from the designer. “I was just quoting a song, but I was ignorant of the power of that word, that it would upset so many people, and I deeply regret that.”

Jihan Forbes spends her days tirelessly writing and her work has been featured on Fashionista, XOJane, The Cut and more. She lives in Harlem, but will always be a Bronx girl. Send her an e-mail sometime.